I'm not sure what the resource gathering paradigm is like, but as a long time player of EVE Online, I'm hoping you do some fun things. Particularly, give the player the ability to automate large, multiship and multirole operations.

I envision something like mining ships or barges that gather large amounts of ore, and transport ships that shuttle that ore back to processing. Support ships may help streamline the process or improve efficiency or transport speeds, or improve the quality of ore mined.